Supportive Therapies for Uterine Cancer Patients: Naturopathic Medicine

Uterine Cancer Treatment: Naturopathic Medicine

At Cancer Treatment Centers of America (CTCA), we offer you the option to integrate naturopathic practices into your uterine cancer treatment plan. Naturopathic medicine can help enhance your physical well-being and lessen the side effects of conventional treatments for cancer of the uterus you may experience.

What is naturopathic medicine?

Naturopathic medicine is a distinct school of medical philosophy and practice. It is an art, a science, a philosophy and a practice of diagnosis, treatment and prevention of illness. Focused on leveraging the body's own innate ability to recover from disease, naturopathic medicine uses the least invasive, most physiologically supportive methods possible. All naturopathic methods of uterine cancer treatment are consistent with these principles, and are chosen based on an individualized analysis of your needs.

While not a licensed healing art where CTCA hospitals are located in Illinois and Oklahoma, our highly trained and experienced naturopathic practitioners (also called naturopaths) regularly consult our physicians.

The foundation of naturopathic medicine is based on the following principles.

1. The healing power of nature: Naturopathic medicine is invested in the inherent ability of the body to establish, maintain and restore health. The healing process is ordered and intelligent; nature heals through the response of the life force. The naturopath's role is to encourage and support this natural process by identifying and removing obstacles to health and recovery. He or she helps to facilitate a healthy internal and external environment for you.
2. First do no harm: Naturopaths use methods and medicinal substances to treat uterine cancer that help minimize the risk of harmful effects. They primarily use noninvasive therapies to help diagnose illness and restore your health. Naturopaths respect and work with the healing power of nature in diagnosis, treatment and counseling. Uterine cancer treatment should be complementary to and synergistic with this healing process.
3. Doctor as teacher: Beyond simple diagnosis and prescription, the naturopath must work to create a healthy interpersonal relationship and rapport with you. A cooperative, practitioner-patient relationship has inherent therapeutic value. The naturopath's major role is to educate and encourage you to take responsibility for your own health throughout your uterine cancer treatment, and beyond. A catalyst for healthful change, the naturopath must strive to inspire hope, as well as understanding.
4. Treat the whole person: Naturopathic medicine recognizes that health and disease are influenced by a wide variety of physical, mental, emotional, genetic, environmental, social, spiritual and other factors. By recognizing the harmonious functioning of all aspects of you as being essential to health, naturopathic medicine applies a personalized and comprehensive approach to diagnosis and treatment that takes each of these factors into account.
5. Prevention: The ultimate goal of naturopathic medicine is prevention. This is accomplished through education and promotion of lifestyle habits that encourage resilience and good health. By assessing risk factors and evaluating hereditary susceptibility to disease, naturopaths can help you avoid further harm and risk. The emphasis is on building your health, rather than on fighting disease.

Naturopathic practice

While naturopaths are trained to be primary care physicians, some choose to emphasize particular treatment methods (see below). Others may concentrate on particular medical fields, such as pediatrics, gynecology, allergies or arthritis. Even though it has its own therapeutic specialties, naturopathic medicine incorporates the natural therapies of many different healing traditions. What can make any therapy part of the naturopathic philosophy is whether or not it is applied based on the naturopathic principles of healing. The current scope of naturopathic practice includes, but is not limited to:

• Clinical nutrition: That "food is the best medicine" is a cornerstone of naturopathic practice. Beneficial foods and nutritional supplements can help patients heal from many medical conditions faster than they can by other means, with fewer complications and side effects. Naturopaths use diet, natural hygiene, fasting and nutritional supplementation in their practice.
• Botanical medicine: Many plant substances naturally contain powerful medicines that can be used to augment uterine cancer treatment. Where single chemically derived drugs may address only a single problem, botanical medicines are able to address a variety of problems simultaneously. Their organic nature makes most botanicals compatible with the body's own chemistry. Hence, they can be gently effective with few toxic side effects.
• Physical medicine: Naturopathic medicine has its own methods of therapeutic manipulation of muscles, bones and the spine. Naturopaths use ultrasound, diathermy (the controlled production of "deep heating" beneath the skin in the subcutaneous tissues, deep muscles and joints for therapeutic purposes), exercise, massage, water, heat and cold and gentle electrical therapies.
• Eastern medicine: Eastern (or Oriental) medicine is a healing philosophy that naturally complements many basic principles of naturopathic medicine. Focused on understanding the relationship between the body and the mind, meridian theory adds to the Western understanding of physiology. Acupuncture is one form of Eastern medicine that may be used to harmonize imbalances in your body, helping to stimulate your immune system and healing response.
• Psychological medicine: Mental attitudes and emotional states may influence, or even cause, physical illness. Counseling, nutritional balancing, stress management, hypnotherapy, biofeedback and other therapies are used to help uterine cancer patients heal psychologically. This can help to strengthen them in their fight against uterine cancer.
• Homeopathic medicine: Homeopathy is based on the principle of "like cures like." Clinical observation indicates that homeopathic therapies work on a subtle, yet powerful, energetic level, gently acting to strengthen the body's healing and immune response and triggering a healing process.

Naturopathic practice also includes the use of any medical substances that contain elements that are components of bodily tissues, or can be employed by the body, for the maintenance of life and the repair of tissues. This also encompasses all methods of diagnostic testing and imaging, including X-ray and ultrasound.

Next Topic: Uterine Cancer Treatment: Mind-Body Medicine